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About Aaron Schmidt or Walking Paper.

My Updated National Library Symbol in Action

Feb 3, ’12 6:00 AM

The San Jose Public Library employed my Updated National Library Symbol for a web graphic. Super!

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I Need Some Checkout Receipts

Dec 28, ’11 2:42 PM

Odd request, I know.

If you have a moment I’d really appreciate it if you’d scan or photograph one of your library’s checkout receipts and send it to me. Ideally it would have at least two items on it.

My address is: librarian at gmail

Thanks a lot!

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10 Steps to a User-Friendly Library Website

Dec 19, ’11 6:00 AM

20 steps workshop

What are you doing on the 25th of January? Maybe you should hang out and talk about websites with Amanda Etches-Johnson and me. We’re going to give it our all! Get ready.

Here’s the blurb from ALA Techsource:

A clean, well-designed website can mean the difference between an informed library user and a confused one. With a focus on the needs and wants of the library user, Amanda Etches-Johnson and Aaron Schmidt will help you develop the skills to make your library website easier to use and more interesting.

Topics include:

  • Determining the purpose of your website
  • Identifying your users’ critical tasks
  • Wrangling content
  • Writing for the web
  • How and when to conduct usability tests

You can register for 10 Steps to a User-Friendly Library Website here.

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Less Talking, More Doing: the User Research Jumpstart

Dec 12, ’11 6:00 AM

Doing even a little bit of user research is more valuable than just talking about it. Don’t get me wrong; talking about research methods and user experience and design is fun and has its place. But actually doing even a bit of research often helps demonstrate the importance of thinking about our users.

Over at Influx we’ve been integrating actually doing something into our presentions. Even a simple 30 minute library patron observation exercise puts theory into practice and makes a presentation about UX much more valuable.

Building upon these observations we have a new get-your-hands-dirty package called the User Research Jumpstart. I’m really excited about it. The service is an effort to get libraries – in addition to learning by talking – learning by doing.

An added benefit of the User Research Jumpstart is that after it’s done libraries have some real user research that they can use to make improvements.

Here’s more about the User Research Jumpstart.

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Conversation Request: Non-Traditional Reference Service

Feb 23, ’11 4:00 AM

Hey, I need some help.

I’d like to talk with a few folks that have experimented with and/or have implemented non-traditional reference scenarios for a LJ column I’m writing.

Let me know if you have experience with doing away with reference desks, roving reference, or merged service points. Or let me know if you know of libraries doing this stuff well.

Leave a comment or mail me at librarian@gmail.com
Thanks!

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Futura the Play

Feb 2, ’11 4:53 PM

Last night I saw an early production of “Futura,” at Portland Center Stage. It’s a dystopian tale about electronic content, privacy, writing, authorship and the ownership of information wrapped up in a bunch of typography goodness. So if you’re into information issues (and if you’re reading this I bet you are) and in the area you should go see it. If you can’t see the play, pick some copies up for your library book. It would be perfect to read in an LIS class too.

The Oregon Humanities Council and PCS arranged a conversation between the play’s author, Jordan Harrison, and me this afternoon. Talking with the author was a real treat and nerding out about library issues with a bunch of non-librarians was pretty great!

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The Benefits of Less

Jan 17, ’11 8:00 AM

Good content takes staff time to produce and arrange, and the navigational overhead can be a time expenditure for users.

I’m not suggesting that libraries shouldn’t try new things or add content to their sites. They should. Still, the library world needs to start a dialog about an additional way to prevent stagnation: subtraction.

That’s a blurb from my latest LJ column titled The Benefits of Less.

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Sneak Peak 2: Remixed

Dec 23, ’10 2:15 PM

CFLsymbol

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new column: the user experience

Jan 14, ’10 1:00 AM

I’m writing a column for Library Journal called The User Experience. It’ll appear every other month.

In this month’s I explain what UX is, make the case for librarians as designers, and even talk about Paul Renner.

Every time librarians create a bookmark, decide to house a collection in a new spot, or figure out how a new service might work, they’re making design decisions. This is what I like to call design by neglect or unintentional design. Whether library employees wear name tags is a design decision. The length of loan periods and whether or not you charge fines is a design decision. Anytime you choose how people will interact with your library, you’re making a design decision. All of these decisions add up to create an experience, good or bad, for your patrons.

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New Content & Feed Option

Nov 18, ’09 1:00 AM

I posted about the font service site Typekit at INFLUX’s blog the other day. Neat site. It inspired me to retool what’s going on here design wise. Funny thing is that I ended up having a he’s-just-not-that-into-you experience with all of the fonts available through Typekit. Oh well. Helvetica Neue/Helvetica/Arial it is. You could say I’m going through a real Crate&Barrel phase.

crateandbarrel logo
(Take a look at that custom uppercase C though. Hot.)

Posterous is Fun&Easy

I’ve been having a ton of fun using Posterous to collect things I like. I didn’t know if I’d stick with it but all the effort is in curating stuff, the fun part. It’s so easy to use it’s become part of my routine.

FYI

I’m going to use the Posterous autopost feature to send content here. It might not be strictly library related so if you get bored of the stuff I collect online you can use the Walking Paper strictly libraries only feed. There will certainly still be library content here but much of the library user experience stuff I’m into these days is ending up at INFLUX’s blog [feed].

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